View full sizeExpress-Times File PhotoThe majority of speakers at a Lower Saucon Township meeting tonight favored staying with the Bethlehem Area Public Library, pictured, over joining the Hellertown Area Library.

The township is undergoing a study on possibly sharing library services with Hellertown instead of Bethlehem and the township library committee presented its interim study.

Even with an expansion of the Hellertown Area Library, all of the committee’s proposed options would save the township money over its $183,467 annual membership with Bethlehem. The plans ranged from $98,972 to $180,539 in annual costs based on the size of the expansion and over how many years it would be paid.

But the lower costs didn’t matter much to the majority of speakers at the meeting held at Saucon Valley High School. They said the Bethlehem library has far greater services, books and other items.

The township library committee, called the Saucon Valley Library Task Force, was charged only with studying how Lower Saucon could join the Hellertown Area Library, Lower Saucon Township Manager Jack Cahalan said. It’ll be up to the township council later this year to decide on library services, he said.

Township Councilman Tom Maxfield, who also sits on the library task force, said the township hasn’t made any decisions on its future library services.

“We’re looking at the options,” he said. “Your council does not want to give you any less of an experience as you’re getting now at the library.”

The task force’s study found 4,181 township residents have Bethlehem public library cards compared with 2,101 township residents who have Hellertown library cards, though a resident has to first have a Bethlehem card to get a Hellertown card. Township residents in 2011 checked out 34,464 items from the Bethlehem library compared with 30,682 items taken out of the Hellertown library.

Several meeting attendees criticized the task force for not presenting a better comparison of the Hellertown and Bethlehem libraries. Cahalan repeatedly said the committee was tasked only with studying how to possibly merge with the Hellertown library.

Township resident Sandra Miller said she wished the township would look at an option where it could be a member of both libraries. She said she is a regular user of both libraries.

“I don’t think it should be an all or nothing decision,” she said.

Those who favored joining the Hellertown library were in the minority, but they were just as passionate toward their preferred library.

“My children can walk there. Obviously they can’t walk to Bethlehem,” Noelle Kramer said. “When I’ve tried to park at Bethlehem I’ve had an abysmal time finding a space.”

The Bethlehem library sent several representatives to the meeting who advocated for the benefits of their library. Bethlehem library Executive Director Janet Fricker said she wished all the Lehigh Valley libraries could work together regionally instead of splintering.

“Taking money from Bethlehem to give to Hellertown to build Hellertown up at Bethlehem’s expense and to duplicate things that we already offer, I don’t think it’s the right way to do it,” she said. “We’re all going to disappear, big and little, if we don’t work together."